ANAHEIM, California—What were anti-Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, British MP George Galloway, Palestinian activist Reem Salahi, and anti-Iraq War mother Cindy Sheehan doing together on a Saturday afternoon in Anaheim, California? “We’re here in the name of freedom, democracy, and humanity to support the Palestinian people to regain their homeland and dignity as human beings,” said Kovic whose book Born on the Fourth of July was made into a Hollywood biopic movie 20 years ago.

Since the end of World War II and founding of Israel in 1948, the Palestinians have become a stateless group with 5.5 millions living in exile around the world. Of the nearly total 10 million Palestinians, about 3.7 millions are residing in West Bank and Gaza Strip and, for the most parts, their lives are “under an Apartheid occupation,” according to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is in the Middle East, a region thousands of miles away from America and yet their issues are very close to the American people. Peace and democracy building, access to oil, and riddance of terrorism are the reasons the U.S. government has committed troops and billions of dollars annually to this largely desert land. It is the birthplace of Christianity and Islam, two of the world’s greatest religions whose teachings espouse living justly and peacefully. Ironically and tragically, some of the longest and bloodiest conflicts in human history have occurred and are continuing to happen here.

Galloway, a controversial British MP and defiant figure against Western nations’ policies in the Middle East, has instigated Viva Palestina in January 2009 to raise funds and aids to organize a convoy to bring aids to the Palestinians living in Gaza in the aftermath of the Israeli bombing in late 2008. The convoy made a 5,000-mile trip through Belgium, France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to bring aids to Feb. 14 this year. Building on this success, he is on a U.S. tour with the Al-Wada, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition organization to raise $1 million in America to organize a Viva Palestina – USA Convoy. He’s joined by Ron Kovic and Cindy Sheehan.

“I lost my son to a senseless war. I am anti-war. I sympathize with the Palestinian people who have lost many loved ones and are suffering still. That’s why I am here to support this humanitarian effort,” said Sheehan, whose son Casey Sheehan, a U.S. soldier, was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Galloway, Kovic, Sheehan, and Salahi plan to lead the second Viva Palestina convoy of aids from America on the Fourth of July, the American Independence Day, to the Palestinian people in Gaza.

There has been an euphoria in the country and around the world since Barak Obama won the presidency last week. Everywhere, people are piecing together a picture to understand what went right and what went wrong. Here’s what I’ve learned from this election 2008:

ISSUES
-Economy: Pocket books trump national security, energy, health care, education, and religious and family value issues.

ETHNICITY
-Political ceiling for minorities has been lifted. Hollywood next?
-With Barack Hussein Obama, an Arabic name, immigrant parents are no longer feared their non-English named children wouldn’t survive high school and have a chance running for public offices.
-People do listen to what you have to say beyond skin colors.
-Being mutt is now cool.

YOUTH
-Youths can be politically engaged and mobilized to do grassroots outreach and to vote.
-“Going green” resonates with the younger generations.

Fund Raising
-Substantial funds can be raised via Internet.
-Small Internet donors are more preferable than big financial contributors. The $5 to $25-monthly donation can add up to millions and translate into millions of vote; a million-dollar donation often comes with a string attached and brings few votes.

INTERNET
-Funds can be effectively raised through the Internet.
-You can mobilize people through social media like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and blogs. But be careful, as there is still a digital divide among millions of voters.
-Instant messaging is crucial. Having a great email database is important.

VOTERS
-A new demographic voter landscape has emerged with many elements still being analyzed: ethnicity, age, gender, lifestyle, religion, income, technology preference, location, issues, ...
-Ethnic voters are now engaged and on the rise but their issues are widely different. Many are socially liberal but have conservative family and religious values at the same time.

ESTABLISHMENT
-You can actually advocate for change by becoming an insider of the system.

MESSAGING/IMAGE
-Consistent positive messages and offering hope can win.
-Not being your true self could cost you dearly (McCain became less straight talk and went nitpicking on negative messages).
-Grandeur (acceptance speech’s stadium backdrop, meeting with Western leaders) can enhance the image.
-Careful with the campaign fund’s credit card for “wardrobes.”

QUALIFICATIONS
-“There is no school for training presidents,” John F. Kennedy once said. Smart and a sound platform can compensate the lack of experience.
-Tall, good looking, and great oratorical skills (just like Kennedy) are definitely a plus.

VP SELECTION
-Any VP selection may not deliver the votes, but a poor choice could definitely hurt.

HOLLYWOOD
Get on their good side early to tap their money and talents to produce “kick**s” bio and Infomercial videos.
-Hanging out with the Saturday Night Live crowds may convince people that what they see is the real you.

I live in Garden Grove, a small city in Orange County, California. It had rained over night and the sun has already presented itself fully. Everything in the city in this morning of November 4th looked clean and smells fresh.

While driving my son to school at around 7:45 a.m., I turned on the radio. The Los Angeles-based KPCC-FM radio, an affiliated National Public Radio station, was giving a live update: “In certain precincts in San Fernando Valley, the waiting is so far about 30 to 40 minutes. As in the past, the lines tend to get longer later in the day when people get out from work.” The field reporter added: “Do stay tune for the full national coverage by NPR, which will start at 7 p.m. tonight.”

Changed the frequency to the Vietnamese-language Little Saigon Radio Little Saigon Radio on KVNR 1480 AM based in Westminster, Orange County, I caught the election discussion between the two morning talk show hosts: “The rain has stopped but everyone should still be careful driving out there on your ways to voting stations. Besides selecting a new president, don’t forget that we have many Vietnamese running for local offices.”

Switched to the Pan Asian language radio on KALI-FM 106.3, headquartered in Los Angeles, the Japanese language program was on. I didn’t understand a word of Japanese but I could discern some key words like “voting,” “McCain,” and “Obama.”

Scanning the major Latino radio stations in Southern California like KLAX, KLVE, KXOL, and KBUE, “El dia de elecciones” also dominates the Spanish-language airwaves with seemingly enthusiastic conversations among the show hosts and their callers.

Regardless of demographic affiliations, people in the Southland are buzzing about voting today.

After dropping my son off at his school, I drove to my designated voting station at a small elementary school, which is conveniently located less than two miles from my house. To my surprise, there was no line. I gave my ID card to one of the poll workers, a late 50-looking man whose name tag indicated that he’s of Vietnamese origin. Looked around the room, I noticed there were nine other poll workers: six seniors – four ladies and two men; and three youths – two females and one male. I could tell that the Latino-looking poll worker could help voters who were more fluent in Spanish; the lady with the “Kim” name tag could assist Korean-speaking voters; and the Vietnamese man who was registering me could provide Vietnamese instruction if I needed. Having multi-lingual poll workers at poll stations made sense.

I don’t know about the rest of the California, but voting at my station was by computer. I had the option to choose either English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, or Chinese ballots. I selected English and made my choices based on my pre-marked sample ballot, which took me several hours of research of the pros and cons in the wee hours to prepare.

After I pressed the red “Cast Ballot” button, an American flag appeared and waving with the display: “Congratulations. You have voted successfully. You now can leave.” As I turned away from my voting booth, I noticed the line was building up with six new comers. I proceeded to the door and a young female poll worker, who was fully dressed in Muslim garb, handed me an “I voted” sticker. “Cool. Thanks,” I said.

A couple of days ago, a friend had sent me an email about Starbuck’s offering free small-size cups of coffee to people who have voted. So I drove to a nearby Starbucks. The moment I stepped inside, a middle-aged man sitting near the entrance raised a coffee cup and said: “If you voted today, you can get a free cup.” I smiled and showed him my “I voted” sticker. He gave me a thumb up.

The Starbucks staffs seemed to be prepared for a larger crowd than usual today. As soon as I waved my sticker, the salesperson asked a perfunctory question: “Room for cream?” “No, thanks,” I said. Fearing these salespersons may get small tips due to many free-coffee voter customers like me, I dropped a buck in the tips jar.

As I headed to the exit door, another man walked in with an “I voted” sticker in his hand.

With so many recent media headlines about illegal voter registration, potential fraud, and intimidation practices to drive away voters these days, I thought the press was talking about Peru or Zimbabwe. But ironically no, they were referring to our country, the U.S., leader of the free world.

I guess it’s all started with the controversial 2000 Election, of which the voting margin was so razor-thin that the outcome first depended on the counting of “hanging chads” and then finally the legal juggernauts (also dubbed as the “Brooks Brothers Riot” of lawyers) between two political parties.

In 2004, the Democratic Party, fearful of another close race, wanted the election to be monitored. Since the world’s most famous and credible election monitor is Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, he therefore cannot be used. A number of Democratic members of the House of Representatives decided to pressure the U.S. State Department (then under Colin Powell) to invite The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) to monitor the U.S. presidential election.

So, of course, the Republican Party was fumed and retaliated with an amendment to a foreign aid bill to block federal funds from being used for the monitoring. The Associated Press reported. Thanks goodness that there were no stuffed ballot boxes and people were not coerced into voting a certain way like in other parts of the world.

So far in this 2008 Election, much of the hoopla about election violations and frauds have been skirmishes between the “Brooks Brothers” clad lawyers from both parties. They are testing the water and pre-positioning in case of a déjà vu of 2000 Election, as some analysts put it.

Meanwhile, according to Lauren Coletta of Common Cause, The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) has been “quietly” back since June with an army of 100 long-term observers from the participating states, traversing around the U.S. making assessment. In the developing countries, the media follows the international election monitors like shadows. Here, Joe the Plumber wouldn’t notice if an OSCE monitor were to standing next to him when he’s about to cast his vote.

Next week, let’s hope both parties will tell their “Brooks Brothers” teams that: “Everything is all right. We don’t need you anymore. You can go home now”. Pheeww!

Julian Do

A free and market-driven financial system would run smoothly by itself when all participants adhere to the set rules and greed is absent. This may sound ridiculous but that was the basis of trust in the U.S. financial system when the stock market crashed spectacularly in 1929.

After that, both the government and the private sectors agreed that new and stronger regulations were needed to curb excessive speculation, the cause of the market downfall. Thus the Glass-Steagall Act (GSA) was passed in 1933 to create the Federal Insurance Corporation System (FDIC) to safeguard banks and depositors. Investment activities and commercial banking also got separated to prevent conflicts of interest and speculation. In addition, a new financial law enforcement agency, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), was formed to police and intervene the financial industry to the avert system from collapsing again.

But here we are in 2008. Not only the latest U.S. financial market collapse is comparable to the 1929 Great Crash, but it is threatening a global meltdown as well.

A foreign friend had asked me how could this happen when the American banking industry was running by the best and brightest from Harvard, Wharton, and Stanford business schools?

Unfortunately, these American elites, as we have learned, were too wallowing in their greed for profit that they have become casino gamblers with subprime lending and credit default swaps (CDS). And while these troubles were brewing, the SEC not only did not intervene, but also had been deregulating and effectively festering the abuse on Wall Street. It was incredible that the situation had actually gone on for many years before things eventually got out of control and exploded spectacularly.

Unlike most critics, I don’t attribute this crisis to Wall Street. I believe greed is a natural feature, inseparable part of any free-market system. Without the profit maximization motive, we would not have many innovative financial products and low-cost services to fuel our economic growth.

On Wall Street, new instruments are often developed to gain an edge over competitors and to outsmart the regulators. Derivatives, Junk Bonds, and Hedge Funds are some examples of modern financial innovations that first became known to the public through scandals during the 1980’s and 1990’s. As these proved to be profitable, greedy financiers severely abused these new market segments and eventually they exploded. Each time, the regulators were caught sleeping at the wheels and reacted only after the fact.

The above events have a striking resemblance to the current financial market crash. Subprime loans and Credit Default Swaps (CDS) had fuelled the growth of the U.S. housing market for almost a decade. Even when the housing debt to income ratio had gone off the roof, financial regulators did not connect the dots to see the bubble was about to burst. Furthermore, when CDS instrument was created to circumvent the Federal Reserve System’s required cash reserve ratio, not only the regulators did not recognize this as a potential “casino” problem, but also allowed many insurance companies like AIG to issue policies worth billions of dollars.

This crisis has also shown us that in the age of globalization, the world financial market is actually very fragile. The collapse of one financial market, even a small exchange (one thinks of the collapse of the Bangkok exchange in 1997), could easily spread to knock out other markets around the world. This means that more than ever, the financial sector needs to be tightly regulated.

One unexpected twist coming out of this economic calamity is that GSA of 1933 is suddenly annulled to sanction investment and commercial banking activities under one roof. Such separation was designed in the aftermath of the 1929 Crash to prevent conflicts of interest and extreme speculation, some inherent by-products of greed. So instead of making the system less risky and more air tight, the government has opened a new valve with justification that new bank holding companies are required to follow stricter transparency reporting and higher cash reserve ratios.

Immediately, Bank of America absorbed the troubled brokerage-house Merrill Lynch and investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are eying commercial banks to acquire. A new era of super bank with ubiquitous reach has begun. Effectively Joe Smith in Dayton, Ohio, could take out a loan for his plumbing business, finance his home, get credit cards, set up college funds for his kids, and plan his retirement fund at the same bank. We may recall that this kind of one-stop-shop financial service had bred conflicts of interest back in the 1920’s that led to the creation of the GSA in the first place. We seem to have come full circle in a dangerous way.

Similar to Derivatives, Junk Bonds, and Hedge Funds, subprime loans and CDS instruments have been identified as the culprits of this crisis but that doesn’t mean they are illegal and should be banned like drugs. The problem was they were over abused. Leading up to the crisis, Countrywide Home Loans had been aggressively pushing subprime loans over the top and Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac were allowed to load them up in their portfolios. Concurrently, Citigroup and Wachovia banks overextended their CDS to free up more cash for subprime lending since AIG was willing to insure their gambits. Right before the housing market crashed, Wall Street had had record-breaking profits several years in a row. Everything was leading up to a perfect storm.

It’s clear that the financial regulation system needs to be revamped to have the capability to constantly screen and recognize potential financial dangers before they explode. Future innovative financial products and their providers should be required to go through rigorous regulation scrutiny before they are allowed in the open market. Even then, these products must be monitored for un-anticipated problems just as you would when a new medicine is introduced to the consumers.

Now that Derivatives, Junk Bonds, and Hedge Funds are properly regulated, these instruments have become essential parts of the financial market. When this crisis is finally over, subprime loans and CDS, as legitimate financial products, should be properly regulated as well.

We cannot eradicate greed (this does not mean we shouldn’t penalize the wrongdoers). However, we can manage this “greed” with effective regulation and yet simultaneously not stifling profit motive so it can continue to thrive to serve as a driving force for healthy competition and innovation in the financial market.

But providing regulators with more tools and power are not enough. Actually both the SEC and Treasury Department have always had enough legal tools and power to investigate and uncover many previous financial malfeasants and the current subprime loan and the CDS problems.

Eliot Spitzer, when he was New York Attorney General, was not armed with any special power when he busted a number of mal-financial practices (i.e., investment banks’ stock pricing manipulation and mutual funds’ late trading/market timing) on Wall Street. Rudy Giuliani, then the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, uncovered a network of inside trading connected with Junk Bonds led by Michal Milken. Like Spitzer, Giuliani only used the legal tools at his disposal.

To really safeguard our future financial market, which has become a lot more complicated and globalized these days, a new leadership, a new generation of dedicated and vigilant financial cops, and a new set of monitoring valuation are needed. Besides the legal tools and power at their disposals, the new crop of regulators need to be trained to make human judgements whenever certain developments, especially those new innovations, don’t seem to be right.

Any system is only as good as the people who run it. And by the way, there is no such thing as a well-run financial market without even trying.

Julian Do